All posts for the day May 14th, 2017

So it’s hard, when my Facebook feed is lighting up with lovely tributes to moms and children, to confess what’s in my heart.

Especially when I too am so blessed—I have such a wonderful mother, such wonderful children!

But there is this stubborn knot, somewhere just above my heart, that will only be untangled if I take the risk of writing my truth.

So here goes.

As a mother, I AM SO ANGRY.

Not at my kids—lord, no.

I am angry at the prevailing culture that makes it so hard to be a mother these days.

I am angry at 12 weeks’ maternity leave being seen as generous.

I am angry at the incredible stupidity of Republicans who can imagine pregnancy as a “pre-existing condition.”

I am angry—no, FURIOUS—at the on-going, accelerating, totally suicidal destruction of our Mother Earth, Gaia, without whose generous beneficence none of us could live for even a moment.

I am angry at our president and first lady—the one an avowed pussy grabber, the other someone who clearly values money over a good relationship.

I am angry that still today, in 2017, women have to choose between career and motherhood—and if we choose motherhood, our earning potential is likely to be forever crippled.

I am angry that my 18-year-old son was forced to register with the US military in case of a draft. The Iroquois Confederacy had it right: no war without the permission of the WOMEN of the tribe.

I am angry that public schooling in America is still tied to the property tax, which means that kids in poor neighborhoods receive significantly poorer schooling than kids in wealthy neighborhoods. Are we not all Americans? Enough of this race/class discrimination!

I am angry that older women, who have put in their time as moms and grandmoms and foster moms and nurturers of all and sundry are at risk of being turned out to pasture without enough social support.

Oh shit! I am angry! And I know that it’s not cool for mothers to be angry. We are supposed to be endless earth-mamas, always nurturing, always forgiving, always sweet, kind and loving.

I am sorry to rain on the lovely parade of adoring mom-and-child social media posts.

But really, my friends, if we look beyond the personal to the political and planetary, can we afford to be complacent?

I want to see a world in which mothering, and parenting, is treated as the most important and well-rewarded job in the world.

I want to see our educational sector doing everything possible to foster creative thinking and self-confidence in our children.

I want to see a world in which people who choose to devote themselves to parenting, when their children are young, are REWARDED for this rather than penalized.

I want to see our steadfast support of GAIA, our beautiful earthly Mother, acknowledged as the most important political stance we could take.